232 PRODUCTS.

six months' time, when the rain has softened their bed. I, of course, could not give credence to this version of the story, but casually made a discovery likely to throw a light upon the subject. I one day shot a wild duck, and having gutted it, proceeded to prepare it for dinner ; in examining the intestines, I found a quantity of fish eggs. Is it not, therefore, probable that the aquatic birds, which set out on their migration immediately after having gorged themselves with spawn on the White Nile, and take to the water again on their arrival in Kordofan, discharge one half of their prey in an undigested form, and that thus the fish are shortly hatched ?

The horses are not very excellent, or of pure Arabian blood, but a half-breed between Dongola horses and those of Berber and Darfiir ; they are not, indeed, as well built as the pure Arabians, but are, nevertheless, fleet, and exceedingly hardy. The natives, more especially the Bakkari, pride themselves on their steeds, and give them milk to drink as long as they live, which they say renders them very strong, and capable of enduring the greatest fatigue. The other inhabitants of Kordofan also offer their horses milk until they are four years old, and not until they have attained that age do they feed them on grass. The dockn forms their substitute for oats. The sheikhs of the Bakkara, seem nearly grown to their horses, and are scarcely ever seen without them. They are of the utmost service to them, in their wars